


Colliding With The Past

by dragonshost



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24459358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonshost/pseuds/dragonshost
Summary: While visiting the cemetery with her mother, Meredy runs smack into someone.
Relationships: Jellal Fernandes/Ultear Milkovich
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Colliding With The Past

Meredy peeked curiously out from behind her adopted mother's skirt. The cemetery was chilly, and there were dead leaves scattered all over the graves. She shivered, and adjusted her muffs.

"Cold?" Ultear asked, her lips curled in the hint of a fond smile. At her answering nod, Ultear crouched in front of the twelve year old. "How about you go to the grave ahead of me, and start pulling the weeds, and maybe sweep away the leaves? I'll bring the water to clean the grave, along with something warm for us to drink."

That perked her up. "I saw a vending machine on the way here."

"Then that's what we'll do. Do you remember the way?"

"Of course!" Without further ado, Meredy dashed off amongst the labyrinth of grave markers.

"Be careful!"

She barely registered her mother's voice, and soon the sight of her disappeared from her view. Her pace hardly slowed the further she went, for her feet knew the path well. Rounding a corner a little too fast, she didn't notice the man beyond until she'd barreled into him, full tilt.

All of the breath in his chest escaped in a whoosh as she rammed his solar plexus. He doubled over, gasping for air.

Meredy, for her part, did not escape the encounter unscathed. Her head was spinning from where it had collided with the man's ribcage.

"Are you… alright?" the man wheezed.

Woozy, she nodded slightly, but that just made her stomach clench unpleasantly.

Firm hands gripped her shoulders. "That's not a good look; here, sit down - put your head between your knees."

She complied, and a moment or two later, she did feel better. Her stomach settled, and world did as well. "Thank you," she whispered. "Sorry for running into you."

"You're welcome. And it's no trouble."

Now that her vision wasn't swimming, she took the opportunity to appraised the man she'd collided with. He wasn't especially tall, had quite the blue hair, and a prominent facial tattoo. Which probably meant that he was someone she shouldn't be associating with, according to her teachers. (Which also left Meredy wondering how the inevitable home visit would go, given the number of rough men that lived in Grandfather Hades's mansion with her and Ultear.) Then Meredy noticed that he was dressed in formal wear. Formal wear she remembered seeing a lot of two years ago, when Ultear had taken her in.

"Were you at a funeral?" she asked him bluntly.

If he was surprised by her rudeness, he didn't show it. "I was," he stated. "An old friend of mine's." He indicated the marker her back was pressed up against. "His name was Simon."

Her eyes widened, and she quickly stood up. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine," he said, smiling in the same sort of pleasant, off-putting way that Ultear did sometimes.

As if summoned by mere thought, Ultear's voice drifted along the grave markers. "Meredy!"

"Over here, Ul!" she replied.

"Ul?" the man questioned, curiosity clear in his gaze.

"My mother," Meredy explained.

That made his eyebrows shoot up. "Your mother is…"

"Milkovich, Ultear. And I'm Milkovich, Meredy." Belatedly, she bowed to him.

He did so as well. "Fernandes, Jellal."

As Ultear rounded the same corner Meredy had - but at a more reasonable speed - she abruptly froze in her tracks upon spotting the pair.

"Jellal," she greeted carefully, a wariness in her eyes that Meredy had only seen once before, when Ultear had attended her graduation from primary school.

"Ultear," Jellal returned with far more ease.

The tension between them was palpable.

But Meredy was far more interested in the drinks resting in the bag hanging from Ultear's arm.

She would let the adults sort out their foolish adult things by themselves, and keep Simon company in the meanwhile.


End file.
